, OH
Returning to Ohio from Detroit following the massacre of Christian Indians at Gnadenhutten in 1782, Moravian missionaries David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder settled their Indian congregation at this site because it was still too dangerous to return to the Tuscarawas valley. The village was named Pilgerruh, or “Pilgrim’s Rest.” Hostile Indians forced this mission to move to present Erie County.
, OH
In 1829 the citizens of Lenox voted to change the township name to Olmsted as their part of a bargain to acquire 500 books owned by the heirs of Aaron Olmsted. Believed to be the first public library in the Western Reserve, the books were brought from Hartford, Connecticut, by oxcart and were stored in settlers’ cabins. The remaining 125 volumes are now housed in the North Olmsted Public Library.
, OH
League Park opened on May 1, 1891, with the legendary Cy Young pitching for the Cleveland Spiders in their win over the Cincinnati Redlegs. The park remained the home of Cleveland’s professional baseball and football teams until 1946. In 1920 the Cleveland Indians’ Elmer Smith hit the first grand slam home run, and Bill Wamby executed the only unassisted triple play, in World Series history. Babe Ruth hit his 500th home run over the park’s short right field wall in 1929. With the park as home field, the Cleveland Buckeyes won the Negro World Series in 1945.
, OH
Adele Von Ohl Parker was a daredevil stunt rider once starring in Buffalo Bill’s shows. Stranded during the Depression, she started a riding school; her flamboyance captivated her young riders. The 34-building ranch was the scene of many rodeos and wild west shows. Visiting friends included Gene Autry and a circus owner whose elephants bathed in the Rocky River. This 37-year fantasy vanished forever upon her death in 1969.
, OH
James Abram Garfield, 20th President of the United States, was born here in 1831. His father died when he was two, but the family remained on the farm where James helped when he was not attending school. He continued to live here through his years as a driver and bowsman on the canal and as a student at Geauga Seminary and Hiram Eclectic Institute (later Hiram College). He left here in 1859 when he was elected to the Ohio Senate.
, OH
For more than ninety years, this area was the heart and soul of Berea’s sandstone quarries. In the early 1830s, John Baldwin discovered that the area’s sandstone deposits made superb grindstones and building stones. In the 1840s, thriving sandstone quarries developed and became Berea’s lifeblood. Searching for the “American Dream,” German, Irish, Italian, Hungarian, and Polish immigrants, among others, came here to work. The quarries eventually encompassed nearly 250 acres and consumed the fashionable houses of Berea’s “South Side” and the buildings of Baldwin University. The Cuyahoga County Court House, Ohio’s Capitol, and Canada’s parliament buildings are among many structures in North America and Europe constructed of Berea sandstone. Decreasing demand for sandstone and the Great Depression closed the last of Berea’s quarries in the mid-1930s.
, OH
Dunham Tavern is the oldest building still standing on its original site in the City of Cleveland. Once a stagecoach stop on the old Buffalo-Cleveland-Detroit road (modern Euclid Avenue), the tavern dates from 1824. The structure was built by Rufus and Jane Pratt Dunham, who journeyed to the Western Reserve from Mansfield, Massachusetts. The Dunhams sold the tavern in 1853. However, it continued to serve the public until 1857, when it was converted to a private residence. It remained a home until the nineteen thirties, when commercial development threatened the former tavern’s existence. The historic structure was dedicated in 1936 as a museum depicting the life of an early Cleveland pioneer family. Dunham Tavern is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated Cleveland Landmark building.
, OH
A fine example of the district school building common to Ohio in the early years of the twentieth century, this two-room, red-brick schoolhouse was completed in 1913. Accommodating elementary school children in east Berea and adjacent areas of Middleburg Township, the Berea “Little Red Schoolhouse” replaced an original wood-frame, one-room school built in the late nineteenth century on the same site. No longer active as a school, the building was used by the Berea Fine Arts Club from 1935 to 1980, and subsequently by the Berea Jaycees for meetings and community projects. This historic structure has been carefully restored and opened to public gatherings by the Berea Little Red Schoolhouse Foundation, Inc. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
614.297.2300
Contact Us
